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We are deeply saddened by the loss of our friend and colleague Richard Nagareda, who passed away on Friday. Richard was a true leader in the field whose work changed the way we think about mass tort litigation. In his book, Mass Torts in a World of Settlement, his casebook, The Law of Class Actions and Other Aggregate Litigation, and a series of important articles on class actions, mass torts and related problems, Richard offered a vision of mass litigation as a problem of governance and administration. He served as associate reporter for the American Law Institute's Principles of the Law of Aggregate Litigation. As Director of the Branstetter Litigation and Dispute Resolution Program at Vanderbilt, he ran one of the nation's finest academic programs on litigation. I had the pleasure of teaching a number of his students when I taught short courses at Vanderbilt, and I know how much his students admired him and how much they learned from him, as did all of us in the field.

Richard Nagareda, the David Daniels Allen Professor of Law and Director of the Cecil D. Branstetter Litigation and Dispute Resolution Program, died suddenly at his home on Friday, October 8.

Memorial arrangements are pending.

“Richard was a personal friend as well as an esteemed colleague, and those of us who were fortunate enough to know him and work with him for the past several years are devastated by his death,” Dean Chris Guthrie said. “The legal academy has lost a gifted scholar, and our students an extremely talented teacher. Our faculty members have lost a good friend and exemplary colleague, and his family a beloved husband, father and son."

Professor Nagareda is survived by his wife, his son and his mother.

Those of us in the field of complex litigation will always have the insights Richard gave us, but we wish we could look forward to his next work, we will miss his voice at meetings and conferences, and we will miss him as a friend.